Feeding Bees and Starvation

Checking hives in the Autumn!🐝

apiarymanager Bee Health, Feeding Bees and Starvation, PBKA

Hi fellow beekeepers , I have recently given my bees a final pre-winter check. Even after being fed 12L of syrup a few weeks ago, there are very little stores, there is Ivy pollen and nectar, but the honey may be unusable for the bees, I have fed fondant and rapid feeder again, the bees were looking for the syrup but the temperature was only 13 degrees. My message is …don’t assume there is enough food in the hives, if the bees can’t use the ivy honey they will starve. Stock up with fondant and feed as required. Good luck everyone.

Peter Kirkup

Asian Hornet update!

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation, Hornets, PBKA

Hi everyone, just a quick note on our European hornet, these are much bigger than a wasp but they do have a striped yellow and black rear, the thorax (or shoulder area) is brown and their head is yellow. I noticed an increase in sightings of the hornet in 2023. This year I am seeing more of them. I asked a pest control officer in our area about his sightings, he also believes numbers have risen. I spilled some bee feed at the entrance to one of my hives, every evening a hornet arrives, licks the landing board and leaves. It shows no interest in the bees nor to enter the hive. The bees do not attack it either, is this an uneasy truce?. Try not to spill feed on or in your hive, take the wax frame scrapings away from your apiary, you do not want to attract wasps I am sure. With the blackberry in flower the honey should start building. Our warm autumn and mild winter means you need to feed more or leave more stores in your hives. Each of my hives had about 30lb of honey, 12l syrup and 2 kg of fondant between September and March the bees ate it all but I did not lose any to starvation.

Peter Kirkup

PBKA Asian Hornet Coordinator

Starvation warning from WBKA!

apiarymanager Bee Health, Feeding Bees and Starvation, PBKA, Starting Beekeeping, Stories of Interest, WBKA

Dear Beekeepers

Our Regional Bee Inspector, Dan Baxter has asked me to forward the article below on starving bees to all contacts in Wales. With the cooler temperatures and inclement weather starvation is being observed across Wales by the inspectorate and supplementary feeding may be recommended to minimise colony losses.  I am also getting reports from Association secretaries about colony losses due to starvation and there is no promise of better weather in the near future.

June gap -starvation risk

apiarymanager Feeding Bees and Starvation

Just to remind all beekeepers, that the June gap has arrived and large growing colonies and nucs etc. with little or no available forage, can quickly suffer from a shortage of stores.

So be sure to check that your bees have enough food, especially if you have taken off any spring honey. Note that if you add extra frames of sealed stores you should keep them in the brood boxes, so as to avoid getting them mixed up in the honey supers. Also, if you have to feed directly, use a light syrup (i.e. 1:1 sugar/water ratio) with any honey supers taken off during the feeding process.